History glossary
The Great Terror
Stalin's campaign of arrests, show trials, torture, and executions across the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1938.
- Category
- Political repression
- Region
- Soviet Union
- Date range
- 1936-1938
What it means
The Great Terror was Stalin's campaign of mass repression from 1936 to 1938. It struck party officials, military commanders, state employees, national minorities, religious leaders, and ordinary citizens through arrests, show trials, torture, executions, and Gulag sentences.
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